Could Germany have won on these conditions?

Or, even if Germany had defeated Russia the Strategic Air Offensive would still of reduced the German industrial base to wreckage because of allied air superiority. We tend to focus on the enormous blood letting and destruction on the East Front without considering what Germany gained from attacking Russia. It's no use capturing Moscow if you can't defend German cities or oil resources from air attack.

In the end air attack is a more effecient way of fighting wars than huge land battles.

 

Either way you look at it, German aircraft production fell behind America and Britain. The P-47, P-51, Hellcat, Corsair, Tempest, Typhoon, Upgraded Spitfires, all had advantages over German planes in their own ways in regards to ruggedness, speed, diving, roll-rate, turn-rate, etc. Most of those allied planes were developed or worked on after the war started. I'm not even counting the Me-262 because it didn't make an impact, and the British had a jet as well, just not as widely used or in the same quantity.

 

According Speer : everything is said . Speer was a born liar .

 

The German economic minister during the war period, the one that followed Schact, I forgot his name, but he also gave the same statement, that Germany did not fully mobilize to a total war economy, and stopped plans for new developments after 1941, which he thought was a mistake. I'll find his name.

 

You are thinking of Fritz Todt, but neither he nor Speer were economic ministers. They were the Reich Minister for Armaments and Ammunition. The Economics Ministry during the war was held by Walther Funk.

In any case, no, the idea Germany failed to mobilize a "total war economy" was debunked long ago; in the 60's by German authors and since the 90's by Mark Harrison and Adam Tooze in English. Germany's problems were lack of labor manpower and capital, and an archaic farm industry.

 

After Schacht came.... Herman Göring. From 26th November 1937, to 15th January 1938. Not quite two months....

Then Walter Funk, who remained in that post until War's end. Funk was quite an abhorrent individual, who immediately continued mobilizing the German economy for war. That he claims that German was not "fully mobilized" is yet another case of selective amnesia, or outright lies, of those toadying individuals allowed to reign powerful in the Third Reich.

Funk was, by a secret law, expressly charged with the task of mobilizing the German economy for war. On 4 September 1938, while the conspirators were engaged in intensive planning for aggression against Czechoslovakia.

The law of 4 September 1938 provided in part:
"It is the task of the GBW [Chief Plenipotentiary for Economics] to put all economic forces into the service of the Reich defense, and to safeguard economically the life of the German nation. To him are subordinate: the Reich Minister of Economics, the Reich Minister of Nutrition and Agriculture, the Reich Minister of Work, the Reich Chief of Forestry, the Reich Commissar for Price Control. He is furthermore responsible for directing the financing of the Reich defense within the realm of the Reich Finance Ministry and the Reich Bank.

"The GBW must carry out the demands of the OKW which are of considerable importance for the armed forces; and he must insure the economic conditions for the production of the armament industry directed immediately by the OKW according to its demands. If the demands of the armed forces cannot be brought into accord with the affairs of economy, then the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor decides.

"The GBW has the right within his sphere to issue laws with the consent of the OKW and GBV which differ from the existing laws."

The law of 4 September 1938, which at the specific direction of Hitler was not made public, was signed by Hitler and by Funk, among others, as "Chief Plenipotentiary for Economics"

Funk, in a speech which he delivered on 14 October 1939, explained how he, as Chief Plenipotentiary for Economics, had, for a year and a half prior to the launching of the aggression against Poland, advanced Germany's economic preparation for war. He stated:

"Although all the economic and financial departments were harnessed in the tasks and work of the Four Year Plan under the leadership of Generalfeldmarschall Goering, the war economic preparation of Germany has also been advanced in secret in another sector for well over a year, namely, by means of the formation of a national guiding apparatus for the special war economic tasks, which had to be mastered at that moment, when the condition of war became a fact. For this work as well all economic departments were combined into one administrative authority, namely under the General Plenipotentiary for Economy, to which position the Fuehrer appointed me one and a half years ago."

His letter to Hitler just before the invasion of Poland, is quite telling...

"Reich Minister Walther Funk.
Berlin W. 8, 25 August 1939.
Unter Den Linden 13.

For the congratulations which you transmitted to me on my birthday, in such extremely friendly and kind fashion, I want to thank you from the depths of my heart. How happy and how grateful we must be to you to be favored to experience these colossal and world- moving times, and that we can contribute to the tremendous events of these days.

General-Field-Marshal Goering informed me, that last night you -- my Fuehrer -- have approved in principle the measures prepared by me for financing the war, for setting up the wage and price systems and for carrying out the plan for an emergency contribution [Notopfer]. This news has made me deeply happy. I hereby most obediently report to you that I have succeeded, through the provisions made already during the last month, to make the German Reichsbank internally so strong and so safe against attack from without that even the most serious disturbances of the international currency and credit systems would be absolutely unable to affect us.

In the meantime I have in a wholly inconspicuous manner converted into gold all assets of the Reichsbank and of the German economy abroad on which we could possibly lay hands. With the proposals worked out by me regarding a ruthless choking of any unessential consumption and any public expenditure and project not necessary for war we will be able to meet all financial and economic demands without any serious reverberations.

In my capacity as General Plenipotentiary for Economics, appointed by you, my Fuehrer, I have regarded it as my duty to give you this report and this pledge in this hour.

Heil, my Fuehrer
(signed) Walther Funk



How much more "fully" could Germany mobilise her economy?

 

It wasn't Todt or Goering. He was interviewed for "the World at War" series. He talked about how the Nazi government was a mess of bureaucratic infighting and that Albert Speer did things his own way.

 

Hans Kerhl was his name.

 

Hjalmar Schacht, uncommon name for a German, actually his name is Scandinavian. His mother was Danish and he was born in Tingleff, Schleswig-Holstein, now in Denmark.

 

These "peasants" knew Germans bloody well from the Great War and "oppression" emerged much later in Cold War pamphlets.

 

What makes a Speer a born liar? I am not saying everything that came out of his pure golden truth, but what makes Speer not have any credit for what he said? What books have you read which disprove his accounts? I am curious.

 

Kerhl was a secretary in the Ministry of Armaments. His account is summarized in germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/pdf/eng/English64_Exeter.pdf

What he describes is disorganization and duplication of effort, not a failure to "fully mobilize". Much of his description could also apply to some US organizations during the war...and, I suspect, some organizations in many other countries. War is not an "economical" or "efficient" undertaking, so complaining about lack of economy and efficiency by participants is common.

 

The Good Nazi : The Life and Lies of Albert Speer by Dan Van Der Vat
Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth by Gitta Sereny
Speer: The Final Verdict by Joachim Fest
The Wages of Destruction: The Making & Breaking of the Nazi Economy by Adam Tooze

 

Also : Das Ende eines Mythos ? Albert Speer und das sogenannte Rüstungswunder (by Jonas Scherner and Jochen Streb) : :an English preface is available .


After the war,Speer was posing as the good,civilised and intelligent nazi : the man with scruples who was bewitched by Hitler and paid the price for it and the man who could have won the war for Germany,but was prevented to so by the stupid nazis .

Others ( people as Galbraith...)were co-responsible for the origin of this myth .

 

Others have addressed most of this but:

Your assumption as to working longer days and 7 days a week is questionable as well. It's been shown that while overtime (i.e. 10-12 hour days and 6 or 7 days a week) can be productive in the short term after about 3 months production drops back to what it would have been with 5 day 8 hour work weeks. I don't think this was known or proven at the time though.

Germany's problem was a lack of resources and as you have alluded to at times an inefficient use of them. Examples of the latter include for instance drafting many of the coal miners resulting in a decrease in the vital coal supply or Hitler's playing off various projects each other not to mention his obsession with the grandiose.

 

Isn't this self contradicting. . . . .

Quote
In any case, no, the idea Germany failed to mobilize a "total war economy" was debunked long ago; in the 60's by German authors and since the 90's by Mark Harrison and Adam Tooze in English. Germany's problems were lack of labor manpower and capital, and an archaic farm industry.

 

If the German War Economy was fully mobilized how come the UK was outproducing Germany by a factor of 2 or 3 to one in tanks and aircraft in 1941 from a popularion half the size (40 v 80) while Germany had the labour resources of all of Europe?

Specific references are to be found in 'The Rise and Fall of the German Air Force' are to be found the failures to mobilize the German aircraft industry.

Tooze makes references to the German economy without comparing it to the British and in this the book is completely flawed. Much of the material in Tooze's book can be cross-referenced with the HMSO 'Economic Blockade' which makes similar points to Tooze, but which also makes comparions with the British war economy.

 

An interesting observation when I remember reading constant comparisons of the German economy to that of not only the British but the French and US economies. My memory isn't as clear if comparisons were made to those of the USSR as well.

 

Tooze compares the economies - but not the level of mobilization. For example the British had universal female conscription for both the war industries and the military. This made a significant impact on labour utilisation. You need to look at the process of 'concentration' (Civil Industry and Trade) labour utilisation (Labour in the Munitions Industries) in the British economy to understand the differences in mobilsation between Germany and the UK.

 

No.